Wi Spa, Loudoun County, Transgender People, And Rape

In the year 2021, two stories have come out which have both reignited what I’ve dubbed “the Transgender Rapist Myth.” That is, the idea that all transgender people are sexual predators out to rape, one that has been incredibly popular in right-wing circles for the past decade.

During the mid-2010’s, Republican state legislators all across the country tried to implement “bathroom bills,” or bills that would require public restrooms to only be used by people of a certain biological sex. On 7/28/2015, Time ran an article talking about many of the arguments made by people on both sides of the issue. One talking point stays with us to this day:

Conservatives argue that such bills are necessary to protect people’s privacy and public safety. Some social conservatives will say that they think transgender people are deluded. “I don’t want men who think they are women in my bathrooms,” testified a Maryland woman in a 2014 hearing on an LGBT non-discrimination bill. But a more common argument is that allowing transgender women to use the women’s room would open the doors up for sexual predators or peeping teenage boys to use those protections as a dangerous ruse to get into female spaces. GOP politician Mike Huckabee made this point in a much-talked-about joke that made the rounds earlier this summer.